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'THE VALLEY PARTY' TWENTY YEARS ON - PART 3 - News video of the campaign

Awareness of the Valley Party grew in the run-up to the election.

Thames Reports did a ten-minute piece that helped bring attention to the Greater London area.

If you have not seen the video before, then it is a great insight. Click on the link below, and if asked at any stage for a password, it is CAFC1990

Thames Reports item




Our thanks to Aliwibble and Lewis Coaches


Valleyparty5.jpg

For a link to other articles in this Valley Party series, CLICK HERE
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Comments

  • [cite]Posted By: aliwibble[/cite]If anyone's got a copy of the coverage once the results came in, I'd love to hear from you.

    Do you mean TV coverage? if so, I am fairly sure there wasn't any. There certainly were no video cameras inside the count. Thing is, no one expected us to do quite that well. Most of us didn't.

    The nearest you get is Mark Mansfield' s audio recording. There were about 200 Charlton supporters at the count, and when the result came through that Simon Oelman had lost his seat, there was a deafening roar. Mark taped the moment, and put it on the premium phone line he'd set up,called ValleyCall, whose revenue helped us pay our bills. People called up, and played it back, often at their employer's expense, again and again....:-)

    Sadly I haven't got it. But if anyone does have it, I'd be very keen to include it on the microsite I'm building about the VP.
  • edited July 2009
    Brings back so many memories ...

    Whatever happened to all those Charlton hooligans ... ;)
  • [cite]Posted By: PragueAddick[/cite]
    The nearest you get is Mark Mansfield' s audio recording. There were about 200 Charlton supporters at the count, and when the result came through that Simon Oelman had lost his seat, there was a deafening roar. Mark taped the moment, and put it on the premium phone line he'd set up,called ValleyCall, whose revenue helped us pay our bills. People called up, and played it back, often at their employer's expense, again and again....:-)

    Don't I know it! He He - I worked for Greenwich at the time! Poetic justice.

    Great Video Ali - some really good memories and a right old rogues gallery. Airman with hair as well (Yes I know I can talk).
  • I wish I had taken a more positive role when the club were going through this.......

    This reminds me of the cray antics that these Greenwich councillors and there employees were engaged in in the mid 80s onwards...

    It turned ordinary working class people against the council for some crazy left wing utopia, on behalf on the 'ordinary person' because they knew better.

    Living in Springfield's I remember having a meeting over at Charlton house with Jim Gillman a councillor a decent bloke who was enrobbed with this sort of nonsense!.

    No wonder the surrounding areas of Woolwich and Greenwich were such a shambles! no investor would get involved with this lot.

    My Grandfather helped formed trade unions in Greenwich and worked for the council, as did my father, my Grandmother worked for the RACS in Woolwich life long labour supporters and trade unionists! they were sickened by the nonsense of this lot. Patronising in the worst type by coffee table socialists who never lived in the nightmare they created, the schools they ran, and the social landscape they demolished.......

    Charlton and it's supporters should be proud of what it acheived.
  • feckin brilliant,unfortunately we seem to be heading back to them dark days.
  • More top stuff Ali, well done.
  • [cite]Posted By: northstandsteve[/cite]feckin brilliant,unfortunately we seem to be heading back to them dark days.

    Well at least the politicians now days are more trustworthy.....oh!
  • brought a tear to my eye,remeber the dark days and never thought i would ever see them again.
  • edited July 2009
    [cite]Posted By: northstandsteve[/cite]brought a tear to my eye,remeber the dark days and never thought i would ever see them again.

    I remember how angry i was at the time when Greenwich Council were trying their best to stop us getting back to the Valley and all the airheads they interviewed complaining about what would happen if we moved back,Noise,Rubbish,Hooligans when all they were really worried about was the value of their house going down because it was near a football ground.


    Forgot to add....great stuff :)
  • Fantastic stuff, edits bits of course appear on the Back to The Valley Video but not living in the Thames TV area at the time, I never saw it.
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  • If anyone is in contact with Paul Watts - I know that he had a load of stuff on video from Thames News.
  • Great stuff, which led me onto watching the other videos against Chelsea and the soccer 6's.
    Top effort!
  • Brilliant to watch all that again

    When you see people like Marsh and Oelman involved its no wonder we had such a struggle to get back.

    Great to see Roger Alwen on there, one of the most important people in Charlton’s history.
  • Excellent stuff, emotional and also very inspiring.

    Roger Alwen, what a man.
  • I remember being on the open top double decker with a few pals from school on the load-haler all day!

    Also remember a fella called Andy Keen(Think he was one of the Valey Party?) on the bus with us he was as funny as fcuk!

    Great great memorys for us oldens!!
  • Wow aliwibble, this is awesome. I'm 24 so don't remember this so much but I know my parents voted for the Valley party. This footage is a real inspiration as to what can be achieved when you mobilise thousands of people with a strong passion for something. I hope you don't mind I linked the footage on the Facebook page for the Supporters Trust to remind people what can be acheived http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=115639721457#/group.php?gid=115639721457
  • have good memories of the night of the count being at footscray station reminding people to vote. and then onto the count and collecting the entrance tickets for the count and going over to the pub and getting another group of people into the count. Top night
  • eddieaddick
    Do not mean to pick holes,but Footscray does not have a station.Think again.
  • Polling station?
  • aliwibble, did you put the Chelsea game on there. If so how did you manage to get hold of the video?
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  • excellant. And PragueAddick claiming we can do joined up handwriting, classic.
  • Donkey, my Dad took me down to the Chelsea club shop to buy it in the school holidays after the end of that season, and still had the tape in a cupboard, so copied it over to DVD for me a few weeks ago.

    Glad you enjoyed the Valley Party stuff guys, but the kudos really should go to Lewis Coaches for still having the tape in the first place.
  • Brilliant.... absolutely brilliant...
  • Just too add to the earlier postings I lived for a time in Coxmount Road, and like most of the houses around there they were post war, with exceptions of roads like Wellington Gardens, Victoria Way, Woolwich Road and Church Lane, and others most of the council housing was post war, and rather ironic that they did not want a return of the football club, and the biggest ground to boot at the time as the video mentions because of property prices!

    They seemed to regard it as a business, and part of the mixed economy, NOT in partnership with the community......

    They would have preffered another crap council estate, to control even more people you can only assume!

    What a shock it must have been to the system, and there little world when the community rejected there patronising 'we know better' mentality. They took the community for granted and no wonder Rosie Barnes got elected. In my opinion Charlton took an historic stand against this bullying and the people of Charlton and surrounding area should be proud of taking a stand against this nonsense, congratulations to the people involved.
  • [cite]Posted By: ken from bexley[/cite]What a shock it must have been to the system, and there little world when the community rejected there patronising 'we know better' mentality. They took the community for granted and no wonder Rosie Barnes got elected. In my opinion Charlton took an historic stand against this bullying and the people of Charlton and surrounding area should be proud of taking a stand against this nonsense, congratulations to the people involved.

    Nice sentiment Ken. I'd really welcome reflections on he VP from everyone, and might come back when our webiste is ready to ask permission to reproduce your thoughts there.
  • [cite]Posted By: LargeAddick[/cite]And PragueAddick claiming we can do joined up handwriting, classic.

    That's really how they thought of us. When we first announced ourselves they were convinced we wouldn't be able to properly complete the process of registering candidates properly. Then the posters went up and suddenly they were looking around for hidden agendas and cash- Tory, BNP, Scientology, whatever. The idea that it was just ordinary people, driven to take extraordinary steps, never crossed their mind. I think it's called 'the arrogance of power"
  • Sorry just seen what i wrote ment falconwood doh long night last night
  • Great stuff - can we now sort out a Valley Party banner for the covered end!
  • The events at the Woolwich town hall will stay with me forever...I still have all the newspaper clippings......great effort by all.....I wonder where all those people are now?....Rick and Richard excepted....
  • Nice thing about the footage is it gives me a chance to highlight a couple of unsung heroes. Dave and Mike, the two creatives who are sitting with me at the start. Its one thing to do advertising and quite another to do good advertising. They are the guys who did the ads. Both serious, proper, Man U fans. Dave was there at Old Trafford for the party match two days after the elections, and got into the PA room at half time to ask for a request for the VP guys. But none of us heard it, to my knowledge.

    They also provided one of my favourite moments of the campaign -which also shows why I'm lary of people who run their agendas in the media without revealing their true identities.

    Because there was no internet, the Mercury letters page was a weekly battle ground. One week late on in the campaign, a guy called Paul Wheeler, apparently a local resident, wrote an "anti" letter in which he advised me to stick to my advertising "day job". I was ready to just ignore it, but when I walked into Dave and Mike's office, they were grinning, and the conversation went like this:

    "I see our mate's been 'aving a go at you"
    "Your MATE? you know him?"
    "Sure. He works for Labour HQ at Walworth Road"
    "Jesus. Can I reveal that?"
    "Sure. He's a fookin Citeh fan:-)"

    So I gleefully unmasked Mr Wheeler in the next Mercury, and the following day, Mike got a call in their office from their mate, who just said:

    "There's only two fookers in the world could have told him that. You, and the fooker sitting next to ya"
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